Flea and Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers performs during the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVIII Halftime Show at MetLife Stadium on February 2, 2014 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea wrote a message to fans to explain why the band’s instruments were unplugged for the Super Bowl halftime show that turned out to be the most-watched musical performance in the history of American television. The short answer: according to the band, it was a requirement by the NFL.

“When we were asked by the NFL and Bruno to play our song Give It Away at the Super Bowl, it was made clear to us that the vocals would be live, but the bass, drums, and guitar would be pre-recorded. I understand the NFL’s stance on this, given they only have a few minutes to set up the stage, there a zillion things that could go wrong and ruin the sound for the folks watching in the stadium and the t.v. viewers,” according to a note under Flea’s name on the band’s website. “There was not any room for argument on this, the NFL does not want to risk their show being botched by bad sound, period.”

He continued, “The Red Hot Chili Peppers stance on any sort of miming has been that we will absolutely not do it. The last time we did it (or tried to) was in the late 80′s, we were thrown off of ‘The Top Of the Pops’ television program in the U.K. during rehearsals because we refused to mime properly, I played bass with my shoe, John played guitar atop Anthony’s shoulders, and we basically had a wrestling match onstage, making a mockery of the idea that it was a real live performance. We mimed on one or two weird MTV shows before that and it always was a drag.”

Flea didn’t respond to a request for comment. The NFL didn’t respond to a request for comment.

According to the Associated Press, an estimated 115.3 million people watched Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers during halftime of a game that saw the Seattle Seahawks blow out the Denver Broncos, the largest-ever number of viewers for a Super Bowl halftime show.

Reclusive Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose published an essay on Billboard mocking the RHCP performance. “I enjoyed the show and I’ve no idea what the real story is nor would I want to suggest or imply anyone wasn’t actually performing or that what they were playing wasn’t what we actually heard,” Rose wrote, before going on to say “If the band wasn’t really playing or wireless or whatever and [RHCP vocalist] Anthony [Kiedis] was really singing they may have set a new world record for the largest karaoke audience ever!”